Web 2.0 in Elementary Classroom: Portraits of Possibilities

ST: New Literacies in Practice

Kelly's portion of this article focuses on the use of blogs in a first grade classroom. Her goal in using the blog is to allow students to share stories. She uses 21classes.com. She starts with basic blogging to allow her students to feel comfortable. She takes time to read the posts during her morning meetings. She can then add more categories-- especially for book talks, responses, and book recommendations. It seems like students are given time in class for assessments, but the blog also offers an outlet for student communication any time they are near the internet.

Kelly brings several points out about the usefulness of using a blog to do this instead of the "traditional" journal. The blog is informal, so students feel less pressure to worry about spelling or editing issues. They truly love reading and commenting on other students' posts and information. She is able to keep in touch with previous students and allow parents a place to write a message to their students. Besides the positive affects on writing, some reluctant readers used the blog to improve their reading too as they enjoyed the text. Students feel a sense of importance since they are "published" and assignments take on a "real world" aspect. It also seems like this would allow a class to feel more connected due to reading text that is content based and informal and sharing their responses to that text.

I really like this idea of using a blog with classes. Our district provides a blog on our website, so we even have the ability to check comments and approve them before they are published. The only major issue is computer access. Many students do not have internet access at home. They can get online for activities they "like" such as Facebook. But many, especially in Middle School, are not able to always get to the library on their own to do computer work. I guess that puts the challenge to the teacher to make the interaction powerful enough to get those students involved. Computer use in school can be tricky depending on how computer labs are signed out. However, if students know there is a post, they should be able to use 5 or less mins of their lab time with another teacher to respond if teachers team correctly.

It is exciting to think that these students are given an opportunity to interact and use technology like this in first grade!